Acer Aspire 5920G Overheating Problem

Hi,

I'm currently using an Acer Aspire 5920G with an NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS graphics card at the default factory clock settings. It seems to be seriously overheating.

At the moment, I have the case open and a fan placed underneath to assist with the cooling.

The temperatures are:
CPU is 37C idle and GPU is 62C idle (this is with the case open).

However, when I use ATITool's 3D view to stress the graphics card, the temperature exceeds 105C within 10 seconds after which I usually stop the stress test, even with the case open and a fan underneath it.

For some reason I can't seem to modify the fan settings; so far I've tried to adjust the fan settings using nHancer, SpeedFan, PowerStrip, NiBiTor, NVTweak, EVGA Precision, RivaTuner and NVIDIA's control panel with nTune, all to no avail - either the fan settings are disabled or are simply not available in these programs.

I've used both the latest ForceWare drivers (257.21) and the older ones which came with the laptop (178.24).

I hope I've given all the relevant information and will appreciate any help!

 

Have you tried cleaning out the air vents?
Granted, the cpu is idling at 37C, but nevertheless, it might be the dust issue.

Alternatively, it also could be that the gpu has started to fail.
It is an 8600m GT after all, and they were notorious for these kinds of issues.

 

I have tried cleaning out the air vents, to no avail.
The case is actually open at the moment, so the air should be flowing out.

I was unable to change fan speeds in NiBiTor as the card doesn't appear to support manual fan control.

Finally, I also tried to upgrade and downgrade the motherboard BIOS, which also did not solve the problem.

 

I have the same laptop with a 8600m gt (is your gs a typo?), ever since I quit playing modern warfare (multiplayer) in room temperatures above 30celcius and started using a laptopcooler I haven't had any problems (before that I had 92-94 celcius, with rainbow colours and purple triangle lines).

If you use your laptop as a desktop replacement system try removing the plastic lid on the bottom from your laptop and add a decent laptop cooler like the Cryo lx or one of the zalman coolers. I use a cheap and very unefficient logitech laptopcooler with 1 fan and it still helps.

Also, i'm not sure if the 8600m gs is soldered into the motherboard in the 5920g. But the 8600m gt is using an mxm slot and can be removed by hand (using a philips screwdriver), perhaps you could try to remove that card and put in some thermal paste (many people use arctic silver 5 but there are way better alternatives). You could also try putting in a new ati hd 4650 in your laptop, i'm not sure if they run cooler, but if your gpu is broken, you will not only have your problem fixed, but also have a way more powerfull graphics card.

In case you want to swap your gpu here are two links which will help you:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/396320-acer-mxm-models-cards.html

The Acer Guy Blog Archive Morris’ Aspire 5920 GPU Swap/upgrade
(this is another gpu upgrade but it gives you an idea how to do the job).

 

Hi,

No, the 'GS' bit isn't a typo - it is an 8600M GS. In my case, what happens is the graphics card reaches around about 105C and then stays stable at that temperature. There are no artifacts on the screen, and everything looks perfectly fine. In fact if I wasn't monitoring temperatures then I wouldn't have noticed a thing.

The card is not soldered into the motherboard, it is an MXM card. In fact I have tried to replace it with the HD 3650 but I had the same issue - temperatures above 90C, even with thermal paste (but not arctic silver 5). I'm not sure if I explored Radeon BIOS Editor enough though, that might have some fan control options.

This has been bugging me for a month or so now, I hope to get it fixed soon!

 

Well I don't really know what else you can do, the 5920g is a very hot machine. If you don't have any problems, just keep using it till your gpu breaks, and then stuff in the hd 3650 if you still have it.

But I'd still get a laptopcooler just to be safe and lengthen the lifespan of your laptop. I also noticed that by just lifting the laptop in the back using 2 small objects (like a beer lid from a glas beer bottle) and removing the battery can make a few degrees of difference.

I also placed an icebag (those blue ones for medical purposes) on the top left corner during intensive modern warmfare multiplayer sessions. Just make sure to lift the bag every 10-15 mins and wipe off the condensated water on your laptop.

 

OK, thanks for the advice!

I will first try the 3650 and attempt to control the fans with RBE if possible. If this fails I will either keep the 3650 or stay with the 8600.

Once again thanks for the help & advice.

 

I need a graphics card for my acer aspire 5920, because is dead, somebody have one to sell me? no matter the speed, i only need to make run my lap :S
thanks

 

I think there's some places on google where you can find new video cards..

 

The gfx card is heavily reliant on how well that single fan exhaust at the back is working on the 5920g, that serves as the cooling system for the entire pc. Opening the bottom, I would expect you break any air flow that forms and this would mean you be getting even higher temps. I say make sure the fan out the back is working nicely, you should feel it blow out the back with some force and heat.

Secondly if your GPU is reaching such high temps in only 10 seconds, its almost certain connection from the GPU to the heatsink is not properly seated. You said you've been swapping out gfx already so its very easy for this to be the case.

Thats all I can say really, make sure everything is in working order, and if it is, then just run the card regardless of what temp is in being reported because it wont break if everything is running right, even if it says 200c.

I have a stock 8600GS on the 5920g as well and It runs fine overclocked as far as it will go and even under 100% cpu and 100% gpu usage it has been running fine for years. Temp is about 88c under full load.

 

Major point right here and I dont think anyone has asked the question what thermal compound did you apply and how did you apply it? It does indeed sound like your GPU is not connected to the Heatsink for it to jump to 105oc within 10 seconds when on full load.

Or if any compound at all has been applied??

 

Hey ya Student, if I read correctly, you posted your 5920G as having a Radeon HD 4670 card? Is it self-modded?

On a similar note, I wonder if there is any way to adjust the single exhaust fan of the 5920G. I've warrantied my 5920G twice, and in both instances the the laptop came back with different fan speeds. The first time the fan blew like a typhoon, reducing the temps significantly but sounded truly obnoxious. The second time it's whisper quiet, but temps are soaring to 60s in idle...

It'd be great if there is a means to change the fan speed settings manually..I can only imagine how wonderful that would be.